N.Y. May Settle Smart Lawsuit

State Officials Considering A Financial Agreement

By Patrick Cronin

Hampton Union, Tuesday, October 7. 2008

[The following article is courtesy of the Hampton Union and Seacoast Online.]

Pam Smart is seen during her trial proceedings in 1991. Smart may receive a financial settlement from the state of New York to end her 2006 lawsuit against the state. [File Photo]

HAMPTON -- Pamela Smart, who is serving a life sentence for recruiting her then-teenaged lover from Seabrook to kill her husband, may receive a financial settlement from the state of New York.

The New York attorney general's office is considering a settlement of Smart's 2006 lawsuit that accused prison officials of unfair treatment after scantily clad photos of her in a cell appeared in a 2003 issue of the National Enquirer.

The pictures, she claims, were taken by a prison guard who allegedly sexually assaulted her. According to court documents, Assistant Attorney General Maria Barous Hartofilis asked federal court Judge Robert Sweet for a two-month delay while the state considers the settlement offer that includes legal fees.

The offer was made by Smart's attorney Nicholas Brook. In the lawsuit, Smart alleges that after the photos appeared in the supermarket tabloid, she was forced to spend two months in a 23-hour-a-day lockdown.

Smart is currently imprisoned at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for enlisting William Flynn to kill her husband, Gregory, in the couple's Derry condominium in 1990. Flynn was a 16-year-old student at Winnacunnet High School when he met Smart, who was the school's media coordinator.

Flynn testified he and Smart had carried on a sexual reltionship for several months, and she finally convinced him he had to kill her husband so they could be together.

Flynn, who was denied early release from prison in February, carried out the murder with the aid of three friends. Two of those friends have since been released from prison while Flynn and Patrick Randall, who held Gregory Smart down while Flynn shot him, remain incarcerated.

Smart doesn't deny the affair but to this day she claims she had nothing to do with her husband's death.